The Collinsport Chronicles XLIII: Violet and Iris
by Maryland Rose
Summary: Violet has died, shot by George Brant and that seemed the end of it. But her resless spirit haunts her sister, Iris, eaten alive by guilt, and everyone in Collinsport is in danger
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"How long have you been a vampire?" Roxanne asked Megan.

"About twelve years."

"With me it has been only three years. Less, actually, but it seems longer."

"Well, I suspect that it gets mixed up with all the other things you had to do, what you already went through before Barnabas showed up."

"Yes, that is true. It is not such a big deal with me. Other things were more important."

"You have talked with Howard, I take it."

"Yes, I have, but still..."

"Still you are not sure whether or not to accept his offer, and you want my opinion."

"Well, everybody speaks highly of your judgment."

"Thanks, but I not infallible. I have been known to screw up on occasion."

"So have I."

"Did you actually trick Barnabas into making you into a vampire?"

"Yes."

"With me, it was an accident. His system was getting too screwed up because of Julia's treatment and I paid for it."

"Will my system get screwed up, too?"

"No. I suspect that Julia actually sabotaged it for reasons that made sense to her then, and which would give us a headache just to try to elucidate. She has no such reasons to do that to you."

Roxanne studied Megan, not sure whether or not to ask the next question. "Did you ever sleep with Barnabas?"

Megan laughed. "Honey, I sleep with everybody. It is a need that I have on top of the blood. So he got included. Anyway, I think that you are seeing him with your old eyes, your human eyes, where his vampire charisma got to you. Now that charisma does not work, and you can see all his flaws. And he has plenty. Take a good look at him, a really good look. When you are through with that, you'll think yourself lucky to be done with him."

* * *

"How can you release Delia?" Iris asked with a hurt voice.

"She has recovered. There is not reason why she should be locked up."

"It isn't right that she is free while Violet is dead! She killed Violet, and you know it!"

"She did not."

"She pushed her to it."

"Iris." Julia's voice was firm, but understanding. "She _did_ push Violet into kidnapping you and Tammy. But breaking out of Wyncliffe and trying to kill you, that was wholly Violet's idea."

"It would not have happened if she had kept away from Violet."

"Maybe. And maybe not."

"Violet would not have come up with the idea on her own. She was my sister, she loved me."

Julia sighed at the rationalizations and self-deceptions that Iris imposed on herself. Why couldn't Iris accept the truth about her sister? Was it the pain? Was it easier to drown herself in guilt than to see Violet as he had really been?

"She loved me!" Iris repeated. "She would have never hurt me!"

"Don't lie to yourself, Iris. It only hurts you."

"It was all Delia's fault."

"Not all of it."

"We would have been fine, Violet and I, if it had not been for her."

"You would not."

"We would."

Julia sighed again. Was it wise to release Delia while a vengeful Iris was stalking her? Specially when you thought of all the different kinds of trouble that could be found around Collinsport.

On the other hand, Delia was fully recovered now. She had no right to keep her locked up - and if she did, she might be facing a lawsuit...

"How can you do this to me?" Iris protested.

"Delia is recovered. I am not going to keep her one minute longer than I have to."

"She deserves to be locked up."

"I am not running a jail, and certainly I am not running "Wyncliffe for your convenience."

"But it isn't fair!"

"I didn't say it was, only that this is the way it is."

* * *

The waves crashed against the rocks, sending an almost invisible shower of droplets in his direction."

Adam licked his lips, tasting the salt that had fallen on them. It was cold, suddenly, and would get even colder. He found it invigorating. He was almost tempted to go for a swim.

And actually somebody was swimming.

He could see the trail, the body, the white shoulders, the long trailing hair..

Someone swimming in that weather? And that hair...

It must be Megan. She liked to swim and did not mind the cold.

...But the sun was up in the sky, shining. It could not be her.

And her hair was green... Dark green. It had seemed black, but it was green.

The woman reached a rock and lifted herself on it.

She had no legs. At the hips the skin paled and became silvery. It also turned into scales.

Into a fish tail...

* * *

"So you will not be running for reelection this year?" Ralph, the D.A., asked George.

"No, to your great relief, I assume."

"It is not what you think... Look I do not approve of what you and Barnabas do. I think that it is wrong, But I have worked with you all these years and I know that I can rely on you. If what I want done can be done, you will do it. I have a good working relationship with you, but..."

"But there is your son to consider."

"I did not mean..."

"I know what you mean. Tommie and all the other children who were in Kira's power. If I run for reelection, after making public my private life, we will be overrun by reporters. And they will go hunting for other stories after they are done with me. They might want to know more about the man who is my lover. they might want to know more about the town and the people in it. Before you know it, someone will remember that Sister Kira died nearby, and start asking questions about her."

"You underhand my position, then."

"Ralph, ever since we found out about Kira, protecting the children was the first concern. Why should it be different now?"

"It should not, but..."

"But you think that I am ready to make a point with my reelection. Try to tell the world that a gay man can be a good sheriff. Well, I have made that point already. If I have not done it in all the years that I have given this town, then I will never do it. And I never got the job to make any point, in the first place. I believed that I had something to offer this town, and I believe that I delivered on it. Now, it is time that I lived a bit for myself. And it is about time that you people learned to manage without me. Maybe one day an openly gay man or woman will become sheriff of Collisnport. It won't be me, though."

* * *

Quentin sat on the cafe, looking out to sea. Collinsport looked nice, even with the cold. had it always looked so nice? or was it that he was at last able to really look at it?

It was strange, but he could not remember ever paying attention to shapes and colors before. Color was color. Red, yellow, blue... why suddenly had he acquired this appreciation for shading, for tone, for brightness?

Maybe it was another of Adam's gifts. He had given him a painter's eyes.

Had Adam added anything else that he did no suspect? Had he taken away something that he might miss?

He did not like the old Quentin, why should he mourn him? Adam had done well in what he did, and he was grateful for that.

"Fancy meeting you here." Carolyn said.

"Not really" he said politely. "This is a public place. It has a good view, and the food is nice. Why shouldn't I be here?"

"It is not that. It is my finding you. Mind if I sit down?"

"Be my guest."

"I want to apologize for the way I used to treat you."

"I probably deserved it. Actually I deserved a few kicks in the ass then."

"I was beastly."

"And I was a spoiled brat well past the age when such behavior is cute. No, Carolyn, do not feel bad. I deserved anything that I got."

"Still, I am sorry. I would like to make it up to you."

"Well, if you want, you could start by not making any plays for me."

She stiffened up. "I am not doing such a thing!"

Quentin sighed. "You and Adam have problems. You do not want to face them and try to solve them. Instead you have fantasies about me. Even though if I was foolish enough to take you up on them, I'd run across the same problem as Adam. Uncle Roger and your stubbornness in dealing with him."

"I am not being stubborn. Roger started as an outpatient and is taking his medicine."

"Good. In which case you can try reconciling with Adam now."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

He had seen a mermaid! A real... live mermaid.

Or had it been a trick of the light? The sun was behind that figure on the rocks, blinding him, not letting him see clearly...

But who would be out there, swimming in this cold weather? It could not have been Megan, not in daylight.

It had been a mermaid, just like in the stories...

Why couldn't it be a mermaid? There had been so many other things in this town.. Witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts... the whole shebang. Why not something as beautiful and magical as a mermaid?

It could well be true. There could be a mermaid out there.

If he kept coming to the beach and watching, he would see her again. Maybe even get close enough..

To do what? To touch it? No, not it. Her. To touch her...

It was easy to fall in love with her. He was maybe, half in love with her already.

In love with what might well be an optical illusion, a trick of the light in his eyes:?

Yet...

Maybe Charles had created her. Why couldn't Charles have painted a mermaid? In fact, he had mentioned that he had painted one once... And now the mermaid had come looking for her creator.

But when had Charles painted her? Before or after Petofi had given him that loaded, dangerous gift?'"

Either way, there was a mermaid out there, and if he kept coming, he would find out more about her and...

Some cautionary words came to him. To beware of the water spirits, as they could be treacherous and deadly. Like the Each Uisge, the Celtic Water Horse, which lured men away by offering a back to ride on, then plunging into the water, only to turn on the riders and devour them.

But she was not a horse. She was lovely. And she certainly as not a devourer of human flesh.

And it would be so lovely with her. No cold stares, no murder attempts by Roger, no surliness from Edmund., no disapproving looks from Edmund's teacher. None of the things that he had to put up with.

He laughed at himself. Falling in love with a fantasy because of his problems with Carolyn...

But he could start painting again. He wanted to try his hand at it, reawaken the talent that Charles had seen in him. And he could paint the mermaid...

* * *

"So you think that Iris will get herself in trouble?" Angelique asked Julia.

"She will, as soon as I turn my head."

"Got any idea what the trouble might be?"

"She might get violent with Delia. Or she might have a breakdown and take it on someone else. Trouble will find its way to happen."

"It always does."

"Just when we thing that we are going to enjoy some well deserved peace and quiet from our labors, it starts all over again when we least expect it."

"What is Iris' problem?"

"She is very bitter about Delia being released. She still blames Delia for her sister's death."

"Well, Delia had something to do with it."

"Yes, she did. But it was still Violet's choice. Delia had nothing to do with Violet's escape, nor her attempt on Iris."

"Still, had it not been for her, nothing of the sort would have happened."

"Maybe. And maybe not. There is no telling about these things. In any case, there is no reason for me not to release Delia."

"You can change that."

"I already told Iris that Wyncliffe is not run for her convenience. If it is run for anyone's convenience it is mine. And I will not risk a lawsuit these days."

"I could fix it so that Delia had a relapse."

"You will do nothing of the sort. I already put it in writing that she is fully recovered. What will it do to my reputation if she relapses right after I release her?"

"Still, it would allow us some breathing room."

"It would damage my reputation and my institution and solve nothing,."

"Why?"

"Because it only postpones the moment of truth for Iris, not makes it go away. Delia will be released. That is what is bothering her, and it will bother her just as much two months from now. the last think Iris needs is to believe that she has the power to make me change my decisions. What she really needs is to face reality."

"So all that you want from me is that I keep an eye on her?"

"You and Megan."

"We are not going to stay here forever. You want a shadowing job, long term as it sounds, talk to Tammy and Joe."

"I don't think that it will be long term. I believe that if Iris gets over it in the first two weeks, things wills settle down."

"And if you are wrong about that, what then?

"Then I will have to make other arrangements, that's all."

* * *

"Megan." Phillip looked abashed. "I want to apologize."

"What for?"

"The names I called you when you would not help us, or so it seemed."

"Phillip, you do not need to. Number one, you helped me keep my cover, and number two, if it had been real what I said, then I deserved those names... You did well. One thing bothers me is how easily you tracked me down."

"It was the word nook. I remembered when you used it."

"Yes. I thought it would be safe to use that old memory, because the only person who knew what it meant was dead... Well, that will be a lesson to me.."

"Megan..."

Megan shook her head. "Phillip. You are married, and have a child. You have a family who wants you very much. And I... I am only a memory to you. Let's keep it that way."

* * *

Little Eliot slept on the seat next to his.

David looked at him briefly, then looked back ahead to the road. "You must miss mother, don't you?" he said under his breath. "So do I. But she's not here. She's left both of us."

And he was alone, studying, trying to take care of the baby, and working. He could not do it all. That was why he was coming to Collinsport. If he had to let others care for his baby, they should be family. He could ask Barnabas for help. Or Carolyn. Carolyn would not reject her nephew. Later, when he was not so n busy, he could come take Eliot back.

He nodded to himself. Yes, he was doing the right thing. What did he know about caring for a baby? And hiring a stranger to do it... not, it was better that Eliot be with family.

Why had Hallie left them? Was he at fault? Had he done something, said something that he should not? Was he the one who should apologize?... She had not even complained, just left.

He wondered again if he was doing the right thing. If he was not abandoning Eliot, as Hallie had abandoned both of them.

Yet, what kind of a father would he be? He was already irritable and short tempered. He remembered how unwilling he had been to become a father, how he had resented it when Hallie had told him that she was pregnant. he could easily end up being the same kind of a father that Roger had been. And Eliot deserved better than that. Let him be raised by people who loved him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Julia was right about one thing." Megan said. "We _do_ have to handle Iris before she gets any bright ideas of her own. If Julia is serious about releasing Delia, then she should consider locking up Iris until she comes to her senses."

"I don't think that Julia will consider it."

"Well, so she knows that she is sitting on a time bomb, and will do nothing about it? And tells everyone that there is a time bomb... This does not sound like her.. Well, maybe we can convince her. Tell her that this is another case in which it does not pay to hope that things we sort themselves out. That's what we did with Yolanda, and see how it turned out... No, if Iris is a time bomb, she needs to be defused."

But we have no grounds to detain her.

"Well, we can give her a push, as we did the last time, didn't we? What was the rationale we used, that when she freaked out she did it in a time and place where she could do no harm? It should work here. Then Julia can release Delia, and _strongly_ advice her to get out of town."

"And how can we push Iris?"

"Since her problem seems to be Violet, and she is unwilling to deal with it, maybe she should be made to face it, and have to run for help in dealing with it."

* * *

It was easier to watch out of it during the day. And yet she might not show herself because of it..

But he had to look. If there was a mermaid there, then he had to make sure of it... he had to see her to convince himself... he had...

If there was a mermaid at all.

But why should there not be? With all the other things that happened, why should a mermaid be more fantastic than the rest? Why couldn't it be real? And why did it matter so much to him that it be real?

It mattered.

He had begun to paint her, to capture her on canvas...

And the skill had come back rushing to him. He had not lost it. All that he had learned over the years, that was not just Charles's gift. He could learn, he could train himself, and he had done so. What Charles had given him was a set of subjects, and a style. But there were other subjects, other themes that were more meaningful to him. And style... Style did change for everyone. It was called evolving... His pictures would not be the Deale Atwaters that people were familiar with, but they would be Deale Atwaters' The hand and the eye were his, and would pain as his mind commanded...

And the mermaid had awakened that in him...

He wanted so much to see her again. It was important... probably the most important thing that he'd ever met. The one thing that truly mattered.

Much better than the silent accusation of Carolyn...

Roger was now an outpatient and taking pills to control himself. That should have reduced the tension around the house - he was quite relieved that Roger was not so willing to kill him now., but Carolyn seemed to blame him for something that he could not figure out what it was... And Edmund was polite to him, but no more...

It was when he thought of her, the mermaid, that none of it mattered.

If only he dared, he would take off his clothes and go swimming after her...

* * *

Violet was there. She did not need to see her, or hear her voice to know of her presence., to feel the weight of her accusing eyes.

It was not Sebastian this time. It was no illusion, no trickery. It _was_ Violet.

"You let this happen to me." Violet was saying, deep in her mind.

"I did nothing" Iris protested. "It was you. You tried to kill me. Brant had to shoot you to save Tammy."

"You stole my child."

"You could not care for him properly."

"Peter is my son. Nothing can change that! Nothing!"

'He needed help. I gave it to him."

Was she angry at empty space? It was not Violet, nor really. It was just herself, wanting to much to see Violet again. Wanting for things to be all right once more. It was herself and no one else who created those imaginary dialogues in her mind.

But what if it was not?

The liquor cabinet was within easy reach. Ore or two glasses. Anything that could banish Violet for a while and help her sleep.

Only, when she woke up, it would be even worse.

"You did this to me, Iris."

"You did it to yourself. You made your choices. I did not."

"You did this."

"It was yourself. And Delia too."

"It was you, Iris. My own sister."

Iris shook her head. "It was yourself. It was Delia. You should not have believed Delia."

Violet's voice stilled for a few moments, and Iris' thoughts turned to Delia..

What right had Julia to set Delia free? What right Delia had to enjoy her freedom, when Violet was dead, and all because of her? Why should Delia be free at all?

She opened the silverware drawer. There was a sharp knife there, with a heavy , easy to hold, handle.

She picked it up, studied it.

Suppose she were to plunge it into Delia's black heart...

Maybe if she did that, Violet would leave her alone. Maybe if she did it, she and Peter could enjoy peace again.

* * *

"You seem worried." Roxanne commented to Derek

"It has nothing to do with you. You see, I am suddenly promoted to a very responsible position and I am not so sure that I like it. I am not sure at all that I can handle it. I suspect that I have been promoted to my level of incompetence."

"Level of incompetence? What's that?"

Derek explained the Peter Principle, making Roxanne laugh. "Did you think that you were at your level of incompetence when you became a vampire?"

"Of course I did. I found my way around it. But this is not something that you can find your way around. You are either responsible or irresponsible. I want to become responsible, but..."

"You'll make it. You have a good head on your shoulders."

"You think so?'

He was surprised as to how comfortable he was in her presence. He could actually look at her and not think of Sebastian at all. She had a way of making him feel good.

And she was surprised, too, as to how much she liked him. And how he could make her laugh. Of course, he was not Howard, but...

* * *

Megan had explained her plan to Julia to handle Iris. It was urgent that something be done, There was no time for excuses nor delay. It was simplicity itself.

"We can have Violet haunting her until she is close to a breakdown. _Then_ you can treat her and allow her to come to terms with what happened to her sister. It will be controlled, so we know how far to push, and when to stop.

Julia was aghast. "Are you crazy? Do your realize what you can do to Iris:? To Peter?'

"No worse than what is already happening."

"You may damage her permanently."

"That's why I want you to be in control of it."

"I will not help you in any way. I will not countenance such a dangerous and unnecessary procedure on one of my patients, or former patients. And if I ever suspect you tried to do it, I will personally hammer a stake through your heart."

Megan sighed. "You do not understand, doctor."

"I understand well enough. And I am warning you. Keep away from Iris. Look, I know that you are resourceful and that you had saved the day for us before. But your are not trained in psychiatry. You have no idea how dangerous it is that your are proposing. You can't just play with someone's sanity."

"But if you help."

"No, the rules is always 'first do no harm' I will not do any harm to Iris, no matter what you promise me will happen."

* * *

Derek gave George his report.

"So, up to now there are no major problems in Egg City."

"Yes, up to now we are too busy to grate on each other's nerves, or to argue basic philosophies. We just agree on what is to be done for the moment."

"But you don't expect it to last."

"It won't. Howard does not like what I am doing. He tries to hide it, but I sense his disapproval. He does it find useful, if nothing else, to keep you happy and out of his hair, but he'd like to put a stop to it. He believes that the place should be self-sustaining, and a self-contained unit, that there is really no need to prepare anyone for the world outside."

"And of course, he'd be the one in charge. He and Frances."

"I think that he'd let me be in charge of a few things, too, if I were to abandon my pope dreams and go over to his side."

"He honestly believes that what he is doing is for the best." George mused "that's what makes it so hard."

"He does have valid objections, I'll grant him that. The program needs more safeguards. After all, what guarantee does he have that I am not luring those people into a life of crime outside?'

"Yes, I can see his point. What about Miss Drew? Does she still want to move there?"

"She has been promised to be in charge of Education, all to herself. She is finding it very hard to reject the offer."

"She might provide a counterweight to Howard, if we present the situation to her correctly. She is tough enough to make him back down if she chooses."

"Yes. And we get along fine, she and I. She says that I make her laugh, and that she has not laughed in years."

"Do you like her?'

"Yes."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"A mermaid?" Quentin examined Adam's new painting "why did you decide to paint one?"

"Why? Anything wrong with mermaids?"

"It is different... I have seen what you painted before, and there has never been anything like this."

"Yes. I know. But you see, those paining were from the personality that 'Charles had created for me. He painted me to be a successful painter, by his rules. But now I am doing it on my own. I am finding my own voice. And anyway, I was becoming stale. I do have to grow as a painter, not stagnate, repeating myself."

"You are a successful painted."

"Which is not always the same as a good painter."

Quentin looked at the mermaid again. "Well, it is a bold new departure, I grant you that."

"Look at it well. See how it allows for a continuous interplay of blues and greens with all other colors subordinate to them. It allows for endless variation in depicting water, and nothing but water. Except for the mermaid at the focal point, the mermaid, which allows for pints and oranges to contrast with the blues and greens. And I can experiment with all kinds of anatomical distortions as caused by water movements, I might as well call this "Symphony in blue green"

He applied more paint, modeling the body.

"You paint it very lovingly."

"Yes. Suddenly I feel that I can work again and feel good about it. It's been a long time since I was excited about painting,. I was afraid that I had lost it all, when I fixed my portrait, but no the talent is still there. And the knowledge of how to put my visions ion canvas remains."

"You know, Collinsport has never had mermaids. Which is strange, given all the stuff that goes on. And when we think that this is a coastal town, where people make their living by the sea, it is surprising how few of the sea denizens have come over to visit us. But no, no denizens of the deep have come knocking at our doors."

"Well, there was Phillip Todd, who had even turned into a man-fish."

"True. That was a marine visitor. But considering the amount of marine legends out there, how come no one of them has come true for us?"

"Maybe it is because there are no mermaids. Because they do not exist. Which is a pity. Something as lovely as that ought to exits."

"Maybe it is lucky that they don't. According to those legends, they enticed sailors into the water, drowned them, and then devoured them."

* * *

"What is the matter with Julia?" Megan asked Barnabas, very much irritated.

"Nothing is the matter. Why do you ask?"

Megan told him of what had happened between her and Julia.

"No wonder. What did you expect, anyway? Do you realize what you were asking her to countenance?"

"It will not get better with Iris. It will get worse."

"I fully agree with Julia. What you are proposing is criminal. and it is also irresponsible, and..."

She shook her head. "Don't act so shocked."

"She is right. You do not have the psychiatric training to appreciate the enormity of what you are proposing."

Megan groaned. Barnabas had spent so much time playing at being a psychiatrist that he ended up sounding like one.

"And that warning she gave you, goes double for me. Do not even dream of doing anything like that. You can't play games with someone's sanity that way."

* * *

"Violet."

She couldn't' get the image out of her mind. Violet dying in a pool of blood, shot by George Brant.

She had been bleeding too. She had been rushed to the hospital, and she had nearly died. Still, she had been able to see Violet lying there. And she had been glad. She thought that it would serve Violet right.

Only it was not right. It could never be right.

And Delia would be free. Free to go and live as she wished. Free to snare others as she had snared Violet and lead them to destruction.

It wasn't right. It just wasn't right.

But Julia would not listen. She did not care. No one cared. Just as no one had cared when she had gone ask them to do something, to rescue Violet from Delia's clutches. All of them had told her not to interfere and be more tolerant of different lifestyles.

Violet had died because of them.

But they were not the ones haunted. They were not the ones who kept seeing how Violet had died. Or the ones who had felt Violet's knife slashing at their flesh.

They were not the ones who had suffered.

They should be made to suffer.

With the knife. She would take the knife and make them know how it felt. All for them, starting with Delia. And Julia Hoffman, who was setting her free. And George Brant. And Barnabas. And Angelique, And Megan, who should have helped but did not.

And Derek Pearce, who had been Delia's lover, who knew what she was really like, and had said nothing about it.

All of them would pay.

Then maybe Violet would rest. Maybe then Violet would leave he alone.

It was a big knife. But not sharp enough. She would sharpen it before she went hunting.

* * *

Maybe she had overreacted with Megan. Maybe she should reconsider what she had said...

No, it was foolish even to think about it. Too dangerous.

It was wicked...

As if a haunting was easy to manage, easy to control, easy to stop once the desired effect was obtained.

It was wicked.

How could they know how much of shock would Iris be able to withstand? There was no way to get precise measurements, no way to fine tune the effects. If Megan thought that she could do it, the more fool her.

And it _was_ wicked.

Granted, something had to be done with Iris...

But not this, not this wicked thing...

She knew it. A false haunting was a wicked thing...

She should know. And Barnabas had been lucky then, that she had not taken her scalpel and retaliated with it...

No, she would not do this wicked thing to Iris...

* * *

"A mermaid? " Carolyn looked curiously at the canvas. "You now paint mermaids? Why?"

"Why not?"

"I take that you paint form your imagination" she said, "unless you have a model."

"Just my imagination. Which is a pity. I would like to see a live mermaid."

"Yes, it would be nice."

Carolyn's interest which had been sparked by the paining died down again. Her face took again the unsmiling mouth and dour expression that she usually wore in his presence.

Carolyn wondered why didn't he confess to her that it was him who had gone to Megan to force her to have Uncle Roger treated. She was walling to forgive him. But he had to confess first.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"I won't help you." George said flatly "I agree with both Julia and Barnabas. If they say it is too risky, it is. It is uncharacteristically dangerous coming form you."

"All right. Don't do that. But something has to be done. If you can come up with a better idea, I will carry out. But what Julia is doing is just sitting around and hoping that things will be solved by themselves. Something is paralyzing her."

"She knows what is best."

"Not in this case. Call it a hunch, if you will, but I have learned to pay attention to my hunches. And it tells me that for some reason Julia is not willing to look at the facts."

George thought about it. What could there be possibly in Iris's situation that could paralyze the usually efficient Julia?

He suspected that he knew the answer.

"And then" Megan insisted. "how do you know that Iris is not being haunted by the real Violet at this very moment?"

* * *

Quentin walked on the beach.

Adam worried him. All that insistence that nothing was wrong. His absorption in his painting. His somewhat furtive look. And his continuous assurances that the mermaid was merely an exercise in color and form.

It just did not ring true.

Could it be that there was a real mermaid? That Adam had fallen under her spell?

Did it have to do with the fact that he did not mention Carolyn at all?

He wished that he knew more o what was going on.

* * *

"Julia" George said. "Can I talk to you?"

"Make it short. I don't have much time."

George shook his head. "It will not do. Like it or not, you have to make time form me."

"I can't"

"If I was Dave, you would find the time."

Julia stared at him, saying nothing. He looked back at her, calmly.

She flinched.

"What has it got to do with..."" she finally asked.

"He is at the bottom of all this, isn't he? That's why you are so unwilling to look at Iris' problem. It is no secret that Iris is being eaten alive by guilt, and you remember how it hurts. And you can't deal with it. So you are now removing yourself from her."

"Just because I don't agree with Megan's flaky scheme does not mean that I don't care."

"I agree. It is a flaky scheme. But still, she seems to be the only one who has _some_ suggestion."

"Listen, Iris is one problem. Dave is another one, a whole different one. If was one that I have dealt with, anyway. It is all in the past."

"It is not."

"And even if it is not, it is none of your business."

"But it is. And I can speak of him with authority, which is something that Barnabas can't do."

Julia shook her head.

"Julia, Iris needs help. And your are doing nothing. Something is paralyzing you. Something is keeping you from thinking clearly about it. Maybe it was because Megan suggested a false haunting. You know what that is like, because Barnabas did it to you."

"The bastard," Julia said between her teeth.

"Yes, he was quite a bastard. He hurt you greatly. And it still hurts you to remember it."

"So?"

He took a deep breath. "Julia, he told me that the pain would not end. That it would stay and it would hurt as much sometimes. But that you'd get better at handling it. You have to handle it. Iris depends on you."

"I betrayed Iris already." she said numbly. "She asked me to help Peter, and I tried to use him to get information about Vassily and the egg. He went comatose again. I had betrayed her, as I betrayed Maggie years ago... You know, I betrayed Maggie even before I met Barnabas..."

"Yes, Julia you did. Because you thought that it would be like meeting Richard again. But that does not help us any. You have to get over it. Iris cannot use your remorse. She can use your clear thinking."

"I... I cannot forget it. Not since Megan mentioned her idea."

"That fake haunting that Barnabas did to you?"

"Yes."

"Maybe I can help you get over it. Talk about it. And if it does not work I will send Barnabas to talk it out to you. But you _are_ to get over it."

Julia nodded.

"Close your eyes. Try to remember. Think back to the way it was, When you saw this figure you thought was Dave but you were not sure."

"I was in my room at Collinwood..."

"Yes. Remember how it was. You were alone, hurt, worried, wondering what Barnabas was planning. And you were trying very hard not to think of what had happened just a few days ago. But you thought about it nevertheless. You were trying to put it out of your mind, and could not..."

Julia's eyes began to form tears.

"Barnabas had retrieved the hypo from the fireplace" she said, in a low, remote voice. "And he had Carolyn leave it in my room. I knew that it was him who had done it, but still I did not truly know."

"Yes, keep remembering. It was dark. You were half asleep. You felt like crying, but did not remember how to weep."

Julia's tears were now flowing freely.

"Then the curtains moved."

"There was something behind the drapes."

"Someone."

"Did you know who it was?"

"I could not see his face. But who else could it be?"

"What did he say?"

Julia hesitated.

"What did he say?" George insisted.

"He... he..."

"He called you by name, didn't he? He asked you why you had done it."

Julia nodded.

"But it could not be him. That was a cat and mouse game that was being played, and he did not play that game. When he went at you, he went with both barrels He did not speak veiled threats. He hollered and they could hear him a mile around."

"I know that..."

"So it was not even real... and it is gone."

"My pain was real. And I did want it to be him. I wanted to explain, even if there was no explanation that I could offer. I wanted to tell him about Richard, and how Barnabas could be like Richard, if we tried... I just wanted him not to hate me."

"He did not hate you. He was sore, angry at you. But hate you? He did not."

"Why did he leave me so alone?"

"That was what you chose."

"It is unfair. Barnabas had him a lot more than I did. So did you. Why was I left alone? Why didn't he show himself to me?"

"You would not allow it."

"He just despised me too much."

"He did not."

"No, he did. I remember when you had me in the cell, when you had beaten me. He never looked at me. He stopped you, yes, but it was for _your_ sake. Not for mine. I did not matter. I was less than nothing. But I was still a nothing that could wreck Georgie boy's chances in life, so he had to stop it. He never even looked in my direction. As if there was nothing to see, there."

George sighed. "I guess he was still sore."

"He hated me."

"There is a difference between being sore and hating."

"Do you see yourself in Iris?"

She nodded. "She is like me. She is strong and competent. Or at least she used to be until what happened to her sister began tearing her apart. Now for her there is nothing but pain. And more pain. And no way out. No way to see Violet again. No way to know if her sisters hates her or not. No way to make Violet stop hating."

"But the situation is not the same."

"Close enough."

"Also, Delia being free might get off the spark in that powder keg."

"I know... I know. But I can't help her. Not the way she wants me to help her. I can't keep Delia locked up."

"Why not?"

"I just can't"

"Find an excuse. Delay it, then try to reach Iris. Unless you really want Iris to kill Delia."

"She won't"

"She will, as you would have killed Barnabas if the situation would have gone on for any longer."

"It is not that."

"Julia, the more you play games with yourself, the more hurt Iris will be at the end."

* * *

Violet wanted her to do this. Violet wanted her to kill...

But she wouldn't do it. Killing as wrong. And Violet had made her own choices. Same as Delia had.

But Delia had live while Violet had died.

It had been Violet's choice to escape and go after her and Tammy. What could she have expected?

Yet the pain that invaded her knew no reasons. It only wanted relief, it only wanted Violet placated, gone, by any means...

What was she doing, walking downtown at his hour, the knife hidden next to her breast? She was not going to use it, not matte what Violet wanted. She was not going to use it.

But why be here at all? Why carry the knife? Why not just go home and forget about it?

Because Violet would not let her forget.

Later, Violet might ask for a higher price. She might ask that either she or Peter join her in death.

But she wouldn't use the knife. Would not use the knife. She would not...

Why didn't she just throw it away?

Yes. Throw it away. Reach under her coat. Take it out.

Throw it away...

No, not here, not now.

"You know what I want, Iris. And you'll get it for me."

No, she would not. Never.

The light was on at the sheriff's office. George Brant's head could be seen, bending over his desk. Still at work. But not for long. He would go home to Barnabas' arms...

But he would not reach it. Barnabas would wait for him in vain tonight...

No!

Iris tried to control herself. She would not do it. She would not kill for Violet's sake.

The door opened and somebody left the sheriff's office. She recognized him: Derek Pearce.

Delia's one-time lover. If he had spoken, if he had exposed Delia for what she was, Violet might have been saved. But he had not spoken, and how he must pay for it.

But that was no reason to kill him...

Do it now. Take the knife, throw it away. Go home. Tell Violet that you have had enough. There is no reason why Derek should die. Not because Violet wants it that way.

But he deserved to die.

Derek walked briskly downtown, and Iris followed him, her hand on the handle of the knife.

This was madness. She did not have to do it.

He stopped at a corner, and she could catch up with him. She looked at his back. Open. Unprotected... She would not...she would not..

Her arm came up and down. The knife entered Derek's body and came out again.

Blood spurted out of the wound and he fell. She struck him once again. And again.

Then she stopped. She got up and ran away, leaving him to bleed on the street.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"You didn't see who struck you?"

"No." Derek was weak, but he was alive - the blade having missed somehow his heart by half an inch. "I was struck from behind and it was dark. My eyes are not so good in the dark as they used to be."

"Any idea of who might have wanted to do this to you?"

"I know of people who might, but they would be likelier to use guns."

"Yes. And then, how could they have found out your real name? No to mention that you are ancient history to them now."

Derek shook his head. "Not so likely to forget, though... and if they found out... Still they'd have used a different method. And finished the job. It was damned sloppy work for them."

"It could have been someone else. Someone who might have had a very specific reason."

"You do suspect Howard, don't you?"

"He too would have done a better job than this. Still, he has a motive."

"I don't see him doing this."

"In any case, I am keeping you under guard."

* * *

Derek lived. Iris sobbed with relief. She had not wanted to kill him. It had been Violet, not her. She had not been able to stop Violet. And Violet would try again...

Violet wanted Derek dead. And George. And Barnabas. And Julia. And Delia. And Zeb, for letting Yolanda get close to Peter, and...

And, at the end, Iris herself. When they were all dead, she would cut her own throat and Violet would be content.

Why not do it now? Why not spare the others, at least?

Yet Violet wanted the others, too.

Who would be next? Iris did not want to know. Whoever it was, she would be the one to stop the killings.

She sobbed. She did not want this. She wanted them to live, she wanted Violet to leave her alone...

George Brant was next.

It had to be him. He was the one most likely to ask questions. And to have them answered.

No, she would not kill for Violet's sake.

Derek lived. But the next one might not. She would not miss. She would make sure that Brant died.

She would kill. It was just luck that Derek had survived. She had had nothing to do with it.

She looked at the knife, sharpened to deadly accuracy.

Had she actually done that? Had she actually used it on a human being?

Was there a way out for her? A way to break free of Violet's demands?

* * *

George checked his gun. He better be careful. Whoever had attacked Derek could well decide that he was next. He still suspected Howard of it.

Maybe it was unfair of him. After all there had been no overt break with Howard, and they still worked together for the common good of the inhabitants of the egg. But he recalled Burke Devlin's death and how Howard had given no warning then...

Even if Howard had nothing to do with it, he had to be very careful. It might well be that someone had recognized Elmer Urrey...

The reasons to believe it was Howard were as valid as believing that it was Urrey's Mob acquaintances...

But neither of them would have left Derek alive, so there was a new deadly enemy to watch out for..

* * *

.

Meeting with Carolyn was awkward for David. They had not talked with each other for years, and what they had said to each other was best forgotten. They had both been at fault, and it did not good to determine who was more at fault then.

But if they did not know what to say, Eliot did. He wailed, demanding that his diaper be changed.

That shook Carolyn out of her stiffly held pose. She took the baby and undid the diaper.

"You did this?"

"Yes. I have been doing is since Hallie left me."

There, it was said. His marriage was a failure. It had left behind a child that he did not know how to care for, and whom he was not sure that he wanted to have around.

"You can't abandon him." Carolyn said, horrified. "It is bad enough that his mother abandons him, without his father doing the same. There has been more than enough of that in the family."

"I do not want to abandon him. I want him to be raised by someone who can give him all the care and love that he deserves. Someone who can give him what I can't"

"Put him up for adoption? How can you? Not even my own father did that! Of all the things you have done..."

"I know. This is the worst. But I know what will happen if I try to raise him. It will be no better than it was between my father and me. He punished me for Mother's desertion. Why should I inflict the same on Eliot?"

"Don't put him up for adoption." Carolyn said firmly. "If you don't want him, I do. I will raise him."

Just as he had hoped. Carolyn offered to do it. Still he feigned reluctance.

"Collinwood is not a happy home. It was not happy for me. Why should it be happy for him?"

"Collinwood can be made into a happy place."

"When has it been?'"

"It can be made."

"Funny, I thought that you were having problems with Adam."

"Adam and I are not having any problems." Carolyn said tartly.

David decided to shut up about it. No need to goad Carolyn so that she would retract her offer to raise Eliot.

From what he had heard his father was behaving himself. He was taking his meds, he had been told. Which meant that he was not taking potshots at anybody these days.

Thank God for small blessings.

* * *

"Derek" Roxanne sat at his bedside "What happened to you?"

"Seems that I made enemies." he looked at her "It is daytime. What are you doing here?"

"Julia says that I am well enough to come. I am not fully recovered yet, but it is only a matter of days now. And it is quite cloudy. If it was a sunny day I would have stayed inside.

"Don't get your feet wet, or you'll get a sore throat."

"That's what Julia tells me. She says that because she has a cure for vampirism, does not mean that she has one for the common cold. All right. That's enough about me. What about you? Do you know who tried to kill you?"

"I have my suspicions."

"Who? she asked, tensing up."

She was ready to get up and slash open whoever it was who had done this.

"In my past I have had some... unsavory associates. I thought that I had shaken them off. But I might have been wrong about it."

"You mean the Mob?'

"It is very likely. They tried to kill me once. Then they believed that I was dead, and they went away. They might have found out that I was alive, after all, and tried to correct it."

"Is it what Sheriff Brant thinks?"

"He says that it is very likely." It was better not to mention their suspicions of Howard. No sense in having Roxanne go at him, because he might be innocent, and a battle between Howard and Roxanne could only end when one of the two was dead. "He's checking on it."

"And you think it likely?"

"They are the most likely suspects. If that does not work, we will try to figure out who I have rubbed the wrong way around here."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"I am worried about Iris." Julia said to Barnabas.

George had told Barnabas about Iris and Julia, so he knew to be very careful about what he said. No need to get Julia worked up over the past, when she needed to think clearly.

If only he could change the past...

No, he had tried that, and the results had been less than satisfactory. The butterfly effect... You crush a butterfly in the past, and all the present is changed... He probably had made more changes in the present than he could imagine. If he had not gone back to 1897 Carter might have been reelected, for example...

Still, when he saw the harm that he had done to Julia, he felt tempted to do it.

"What Megan offered was no solution." Julia said firmly.

"No, it is not. But we seem to be out of ideas.."

She shrugged.

Don't go there, he warned himself.

"What if it is already happening?" he said suddenly. "For real? What if Violet is already haunting her?'

"Of course. She attracted Sebastian to her. Why not Violet?"

Barnabas nodded, glad to have an excuse to get out. He did not care to go over the 1967 pseudo haunting. Not yet. "I think that I better go talk with her. If she is being haunted, I will know."

* * *

Iris looked at the phone. Barnabas was coming to see her tonight. To discuss Delia, he had said.

And Violet...

Did Barnabas suspect that it was her who had tried to kill Derek?"

It did not matter if he did or not.

Because she was going to kill him. She had already sharpened a wooden knife to do it.

She had not wanted to do it, but she had done it...

The wooden knife was well sharpened...

Why? Why should she give in to Violet? Why should she grant her sister her pound of flesh?

Because she could not stop her.

Deep in her, there was a whimper. She should not do this. She should be able to stop, to warn Barnabas not to come.

She would kill him. She had loved him once, and she would kill him...

Violet would have her way.

She looked at the wooden knife again. It was sharp, as sharp as the knife she had used on Derek... and this time she would not botch it.

* * *

Barnabas hoped that a talk with Iris would help her. He should have done this months ago, no matter what excuses he gave himself for not doing it.

And he should also talk to David about what he had done with Eliot. It made him mad to think about it. Granted that David was hurt by Hallie's actions, but what call did he have to dump Elliot like that?

But that could wait until he talked with Iris.

* * *

Iris sensed Violet's presence next to her. Barnabas Collins was coming. Barnabas Collins would be hers to kill.

She flattened herself against the wall. She had to stop Violet, make her go back, get the knife away from her...

But Violet was the stronger. It had not been so in life, but Violet was now strong...

She heard the steps approaching. Barnabas. It had to be him. She rested the knife against her breast, hoping that he would go away. She would not go down and open the door. Let him think that she was not home. Let him go away safely.

Violet waited. Barnabas was coming. to her.

"Iris?" Barnabas called "Iris, are you here?"

Iris whimpered. No, she was not. "Go away, Barnabas," she said in a whisper. "Save yourself, Go."

Barnabas worked the doorknob. It was locked. And the house was dark, without any lights.

"Iris!" he called again.

A chilling thought came to him. Suppose something had happened to her. Suppose she had killed herself, suppose...

He materialized inside the house.

He would look for her, look for any clues as to what had happened. He hoped that she was still alive.

Iris knew that he had come in. She whimpered. It was now too late to save him.

"Iris!" Barnabas knocked at the doors downstairs, opened them. No one was there. Puzzled he went into the kitchen. No Iris there, either.

But he could find her in the bathtub, drowned. Or with her veins opened. Or maybe she was hanging from a beam somewhere.

The ways of committing suicide inside your home seemed endless...

He would look upstairs. Maybe she was in her own bed, having taken too many sleeping pills...

Iris waited in the dark, sure that he would now come close enough for her to stab. He would come up the steps. Twenty five steps, and no more.

He had twenty five more steps to live...

Barnabas went up "Iris?" he asked again. "are you there?"

And then Iris burst into him. And he felt a blow to the chest...

She had stabbed him in the chest.

He staggered falling backwards. He slid down the steps, with her on top, moving the knife back and forth, like a saw in the wound. And feeling the splinters break off and embed themselves in him... Tearing his flesh, coming close to his heart...

"Iris, why?" he asked.

He fell to the ground floor, and she got up, leaving the knife in him.

He tried to move, and could not, the splinters stabbed him inside... "Iris..." he looked at her pleadingly. "Why?"

She began to weep, softly. "I had to... I could not stop myself..."

Then she turned, as if facing someone else "Here, Violet!" she said harshly "Are you satisfied now? Has he paid for your wrongs, and more besides? Or do you still want more?"

Barnabas moaned, a s much in dismay as in pain. Iris did not seem to hear him. She did not see him try to move. He was dead, dead, dead... He was as dead as Violet was. It was over for him now.

She moved away, her eyes fixed still on the spilled blood. "Why didn't you leave?" she asked "You would have been all right. You would not be here. You would..."

The knife was still in him...

He was alive still. Waiting for the sun to finish him off.

* * *

Barnabas is in trouble "George said suddenly.

"How do you know?"

"We are linked. As he is with anyone he takes blood from. I have to go look for him."

* * *

Iris saw the car come up the road, with the flashing light on top.

Sheriff Brant, looking for Barnabas, coming to find him.

Coming to find his body...

She could not stay there, not where Violet could rise again and demand more blood, more death...

She would, for once, not kill...

She ran out of the back door as Brant began to try to force the front door open.

So, it was breaking and entering. He did not have a proper warrant. Too bad. He had to find Barnabas...

She must get away. She must run as fast as she could. If he got too close to her...

She ran into the night as Brant forced the door open and turned on the light.

And he found Barnabas.

"Damn it!" he said, as he knelt down.

Barnabas opened his eyes. "George." he said "Iris... she has a knife... she'll use it on you."

George pulled out his gun. "I will look around"

Iris was nowhere in the house. He found Peter in his bedroom, mercifully asleep. Of Iris, no trace.

He made sure that she was not in the house. He would have heard her if she was. All he could hear were his own steps and his own breathing.

And Barnabas' soft whimper.

He came back to him and pulled out the knife. "It is safe to get up now."

"I can't This thing left splinters in me. Better ask Kenneth to come take them out."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Barnabas tried to make no sound as Kenneth probed into his wounds. Kenneth had not put him under because he needed to be told if there were still splinters to be extracted, and Barnabas was the only one who could tell him.

In spite of the grimness of the situation, Kenneth could not keep from smiling. What would his colleagues think if they knew that he was performing surgery on a vampire? Of course, it was not the first time. But Derek had been a simple matter, just one bullet, instead of too many splinters.

In a sense, it was a unique opportunity to study a vampire's anatomy very closely. Maybe he and Julia should compare notes on it. Maybe they could establish their own specialty...

Barnabas tried not to think that it was Iris who had done this to him. He tried to concentrate on other, more pleasant memories. And to pay attention to Kenneth's probing, till the last of the splinters was removed.

He knew that he was very hungry, and he hoped that they had brought something. He did not want to hurt Kenneth nor George, and he did not know if he would have enough self-control.

He should not complain. When Willie got all those bullets in him, that had been real tough, not like this. There was never any doubt that he would live, not that he would fully recover. But Willie, he could have easily died on the operating table, or become crippled for life.

Of course, it had not happened. Willie was still around, doing well, he was married, he had a little girl of his own. But that he had survived was not thanks to Barnabas.

Kenneth found another splinter and pulled it out. "Does it feel better now?"

"A bit... doctor.. I am getting too hungry. I might lose control. Did you get anything in the way of supplies?"

"Of course. I recall what we did with Derek. If you do not mind the dried stuff..."

"I don't"

"Then, no problem."

* * *

"Do you have to follow me at all times? " Julia asked Roxanne, irritated.

"I am your bodyguard. You certainly do not want Iris to do to you what she did to Barnabas."

Julia growled. "Why don't you go guard Derek?'

"He's got his own guards. And I have an interest in keeping you in one piece. You are my doctor. Be reasonable, Julia. What do you think you could do if Iris came upon you, knife in hand?"

"I could try to calm her down."

"You could try bleeding to death from multiple wounds, that's what you could do."

"I think that George is overreacting."

"No, she stabbed Derek. She stabbed Barnabas. And she certainly has an even bigger grievance against you. After all, you are the one who started all this by refusing to keep Delia locked up. If it wasn't for that, Iris might have never flipped out. Now, will you please stop all this childish behavior and cooperate?"

"I am too old to be treated like this."

"Julia, will you stop being so goddamned stubborn. I am tempted to tie you to a chair so that I know where you are at all times, and can be reasonably certain that you won't do anything stupid."

"But you won't do it."

"Maybe I will. Don't push me, Julia. I promised Brant that I would keep you in one piece, one way or the other. Understood?"

Julia did understand. She sighed and went back to her desk.

"You know," she said, more calmly now. "I knew that there was something wrong with her. But I did not imagine... All right. I did not want to see it, did not want to think about it..."

"We all make mistakes. The problem with this one is that there are knives in it. Well, both Derek and "Barnabas survived the attacks. For some reason, Iris did not finish the job with them."

"Iris might be fighting Violet. Or at least the Violet side of her personality and that's why she stops short of killing. Maybe if we could reach her, give her strength... you know what Barnabas said about her, how she was weeping when he was lying on the ground."

"That may well be. But don't expect Iris to regain control by the time she gets the chance to meet you."

* * *

Adam was climbing the rocks, the binoculars hanging from his neck. It might well be that he'd see her if he looked hard enough.

Maybe the white trail that lay across the waters was her. Or there where the waves broke and green algae swayed with the wind. Green algae... why couldn't it be her hair?

He kept climbing up the rocks. If he got a better vantage point, it would become clearer.

It was not an easy climb. The rocks were covered with a slimy material which made stepping on them dangerous. But not all the way. Higher up, the rocks would be dry and safer.

He wondered if he would ever get close enough to her. And what would he do then?

Would she love him? Would she take him away to her crystal palace under the sea?

Nonsense. That was childish.

So what was he doing here? Why was he chasing her like this?

Because... because she was a mermaid. And if you saw something that looked like a mermaid, you had to make sure, dammit!

Because she was _there_.

He had to prove to himself that he had seen her. Once he did, he could go back to normal.

And he'd paint her again.

He looked ahead, to the rock where he had seen her last. No, there was nothing there. He shook his head. What did he expect, anyway? A real live mermaid? It was all an illusion.

He climbed back down, promising himself to come back tomorrow. Maybe he'd have better luck then..

He almost missed them, the strands that laid on top of the next rock.

Green strands, looking like algae. With paler, golden strands intermingled with them.

Only they were not algae. They were hair. Mermaid's hair. Green and gold silk threads of incredible delicacy.

He picked them up. Was that it, then? Had he truly found mermaid's hair? Was this proof that she had been there?"

He gathered as many strands as he could and put them in his pocket. Maybe that was all the proof he needed.

He found Xavier Davenport, with Sandy, on the way back. Her children followed them, dragging their toys in the sand.

"You seen that?" Adam asked them.

"Seen what?"

"The mermaid. She was there, on the rocks."

Sandy and Xavier looked at each other. Adam hated himself now... he was going to look like a fool.

"No. I guess it was just an optical illusion. But for a moment... well, it would be nice if it were there, would it not?"

* * *

"So you think that it was Iris who knifed me?" Derek asked George.

"Yes. We are certain that it was her."

"But how do I figure in it? Barnabas, I can see. And Julia. And certainly Delia. But me...

"You were Delia's lover."

"But it was before... before she started acting really crazy."

"Well, Iris might not see it that way. In any case, she is running loose, and very likely she is armed." George said. "I have put a guard on you. I have put one on Delia, and one on Julia."

"I hope that you catch her fast enough."

"So do I. By the way, I put Roxanne to be Julia's guard."

"Roxanne?"

"Yes. It is amazing how well we two can get along now."

"She is a nice person. Maybe a bit too intense, but I like her. It was not her fault that she was caught in that infernal situation at her home."

"No, it was not. She made the best of it."

"I have been thinking abut her. And the other Roxanne. And Sebastian."

"You should not feel bad about it. You did what you had to do."

"Maybe." Derek's expression indicated a distaste to pursue the question further. "in any case, I like _this_ Roxanne."

"Don't like her too much, or you'll end up marrying her."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Urien was a bit shaken for what had happened to Barnabas, what had almost happened to him. Even if he was all right now, ever since Kenneth had pulled out the last splinter, still he could not stop from thinking of what might have happened.

"To think that that crazy woman carved you up as if you were a Christmas turkey, and then had to go into surgery..."

Barnabas frowned. He did not like to hear the term "crazy" applied to Iris. Yet the evidence was overwhelming. He had seen her face as she stood over him after stabbing him. He had heard what she had said afterwards. Maybe she was truly possessed by Violet... But still...

"You are going to be all right, aren't you?' Urien asked with concern.

"Yes. I am. But I think that you should get out of town until this is over."

"Why?"

"Because she may go after you. Get me through you."

"You need someone to protect you."

"But not you."

"I can do it!"

"I saw what Zoya did to you. I will not put you at risk again."

"It is not the same!"

"I do not want to see how she carves you up."

Urien pouted. "I don't want to hear you say that, as if I was helpless, as if all I could do was to sit down and wait for her to come with her knife... as if I could not help myself nor anyone else..."

"It is not that."

"Dammit! When I was in the streets I could take care of myself."

"I know you did."

"Then why not let me stay and fight?"

"Because I care for you. Because if anything happens to you, I could not forgive myself."

"But why should anything happen to me?"

"Why not? She knifed me, she knifed Derek. We have a good idea as to who else might be on her list. But there might be others."

"But it does not have to be that way!"

"No. But I don't want to run the risk."

"I am not leaving. I am staying and taking care of you during the day. If she tries to come at you then, I will handle her."

* * *

Adam braided the long strands of hair into a think strip. It was slight, little more than a string, but he knew that it would be strong enough. And he also knew that he must keep it.

He wrapped it around his wrist. He was not surprised at the tingling feeling that came when it touched his skin.

He would keep it with him, always. It would help him paint better. It would make life bearable. It would...

It would help him find her.

* * *

Iris crouched in the makeshift refuge that she had dug into the snow. It protected her somehow from the wind, and she could hold on to some warmth in it. Before coming here she had managed to steal some clothes and food. The came handy now.

What would she do now? Turn herself over to George? Tell him her story, say that she had not wanted to hurt anyone? That it was all Violet's doing?"

They would not believe her. And even if they did, she would not get the chance to explain. Violet would see the man who had shot her, and would take over again, and go for him. Then either George Brant died, or he shot her dead to save himself...

She had a blanket to wrap herself in. She could sit. She could wait. She could try to contemplate the mysteries of the Universe...

Maybe she could die of cold, and thus cheat Violet out of most of her revenge.

* * *

George looked at the flying snow through the window. Soon they would be barely able to go out.

Angelique had been tracking Iris, which she said she found it difficult as there was a "fuzzy" quality about Iris. Sometimes she was there, sometime she wasn't. But she was sure that she was out in the woods.

It would be impossible to find Iris in this snowstorm. And also impossible for Iris to get to anyone...

If Iris could not find food or shelter out there she could well die. He did not wish for that to happen, even if it meant that the problem had solved itself.

At night he could send Megan to look for her. He might even risk sending Barnabas... Barnabas would now be on his guard and would not let her come close to him...

If by then the blizzard had stopped.

Maybe they could use a helicopter... This Sheriff's Office could certainly use an helicopter. This was, after all, the Twentieth Century. At least that was what Deputy Hamell said.

He suspected his said those things because they could help Deputy Hamell become Sheriff Hamell...

Still it was a good idea. And search and rescue dogs. Had to find who around there trained dogs for rescue work...

And he thought of Comet... Maybe he could have been trained as a search and rescue dog...

But that was for later. Now Iris was missing, she was armed, even if only with a knife, and dangerous.

He wondered if they would see her again alive, or they would find her frozen body later on.

He also wondered about Urien, standing guard over the sleeping Barnabas, waiting for Iris to come in, waiting for her to try to finish what she had started...

He probably had a gun with him... He knew that he should not have allowed it... But someone had to keep Barnabas safe...

And anyway, with this snowstorm, there was little danger of Iris showing up.

But when the blizzard was over, he'd put a stop to that. Maybe put a trained man to watch over Barnabas and deputize Urien to take calls at the sheriff's office, if he wanted to help so to free a deputy for active duty. Maybe let Urien handle the radio contact with all the cars.

* * *

The blizzard had abated and Urien was at his post, with the radio. He was not happy about it, but had to give in to George's orders. And George braced himself for going out.

Every year there was at least one major blizzard. One of the benefits of knowing it was that you knew what to expect and how to handle yourself, and this time it would be no exception.

He was going to comb the area, guided by the latest directions from Angelique. Whether Iris was alive, or if she had frozen to death, he would bring her in.

* * *

Iris woke. She was cold and hungry, but she was alive. She had survived the blizzard and she could try again sneaking into town.

Or leaving, which would be the sensible thing to do.

But that would do no good. Violet would force her to return and finish what she had started.

Violet would find a way...

She plodded out into the snow, not sure as to where she wanted to go, only aware that in some direction there must be food and hot coffee.

The wind cut her, with sharp points of pure ice and the piled up snow made her feet feel like lead.

"Stop!"

It was George's voice reaching her from far away...

George came as close as he could on the road. It was either Iris or a stranded motorist. Either way, he had to reach her.

He hoped that she did not have a gun.

Iris heard him come and she would have run away, but she could not move fast enough. And the thought came to her that they might well have a thermos bottle with him, one filled with hot coffee.

It was indeed Iris. He had to be careful how he approached her. She might be half frozen to death, but she was still dangerous

She moved in his direction, his eyes fixed on Brant's face. She stared at him. He did not want him to die, only that he should give her coffee and food. But Violet wanted his death...

And she could not fight Violet.

George took off his coat, calculating the distance between him and Iris.

She still had a knife with her, the same one she had used on Derek. And she pulled it out.

George threw the coat over her.

She tried to shake it off, but he pinioned her arms under it.

He tied a belt around her arms and dragged her to the car. At least now she would be out of the cold...


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"It is a miracle that she is still alive." Kenneth commented.

"Evidently she did not expect the snowstorm to hit so suddenly after she ran off" George said "I wonder if she thought of it at all, or she only tried to get out s fast as she could."

"Did she say anything:?"

"She admitted knifing both Barnabas and Derek. And that it was all Violet's fault. Then she lost consciousness."

Julia nodded slowly. :"I guess it is my fault, after all, for being so keen on releasing Delia and for not paying attention to what Megan was trying to tell me."

"We all made mistakes there. And you could not, legally, keep Delia much longer." George said, "If you had insisted, you could have been sued."

"Still, we should have seen it earlier."

"Well, she didn't kill either Derek nor Barnabas, so we can be grateful for that."

"Yes. I imagine so. What about Peter?"

"He's staying with Xavier and Sandy. They volunteered for it. Said that exposure to normal family life would do him a lot of good."

"They may be right... We have failed him so many times. As we failed Iris" Julia said dejectedly.

"No, Julia, we haven't failed Iris, not yet."

"But what's the point?"

"Do not give up, Julia. You did not do it with Barnabas, and you will not do it with her, either. Think of it. What if she is right? What if she is being possessed by Violet? Then all we need to do is exorcize that ghost."

"It might be just a delusion of Iris' mind, caused by her guilt feelings."

'And her guilt feelings might attract Violet to her. "

"No..."

"She attracted Sebastian, why not Violet?"

* * *

"So you caught her." Barnabas looked even more dejected than Julia had been.

Evidently this episode had come to close to some old wounds of both of them, and they were working out that old pain in inconvenient ways...

Well, time to talk sense into him.

"No, not you to." he growled at Barnabas "It was bad enough watch Julia go into a gloom and doom mode over her. And I am sick and tired of gloom and doom. Not while we can fight back. Yes, Iris, went over the edge and knifed you. Yes, there were plenty of things that you should have done, and that Julia should have done, and you did not. But that does not mean that we are going to give up on her. We are going to find what happened, and how we can fix it."

"We all know what pushed her to it."

"We think we know, which is not the same as knowing... And that does not mean that there is no solution. It means that we have to look for one. Sure, I can make a list of the ways we overlooked her, we forgot her, we hoped for the best, and all that jazz. But that is no reason to do nothing now. It is not as if she had jumped off Widow's Hill and all we could do would be to stand there, gaze into the distance, and wish things were different."

Barnabas pondered this, and the next time he spoke, he had accepted the justice of George's comment.

"You did not hurt her.."

"Hurt her? I kept her from freezing to death. I put some hot coffee into her, and I took her to the hospital."

'You are right. I cannot blame you. In fact, in this mess, you probably are the one with least blame."

There was no way out of it, George realized with an inward groan. Barnabas needed to agonize about Iris for a while, and there was no stopping him when he was in that mood. But that mood would pass in a couple of hours, at least, and then Barnabas would come back to Earth and start coming up with sensible ideas on how to find out if Violet was truly possessing Iris, and what could be done.

* * *

The snow had piled up on the beach and would remain there for a while.

Adam brought his easel and paint supplies with him. It looked so... so special.

Not so long ago he had doubts about his ability as a painter, wondering if he had any talent at all, or had it all been a gift of Charles', a gift that he had destroyed when he had painted over his own portrait.

He no longer had such doubts.

There was no room for doubt in him. None at all since had had seen _her_ and knew that she was worth painting.

And now that he wore the braided strip on his wrist, he felt more sure of himself than ever.

He chose the colors. White for the snow, He would mix it with blues and pinks. Then gray and purple overtones, very subtle ones. Blue and green for the water, and again gray and purple overtones, with some streaks of pink. Dark for the underside of the waves, making the white shine even more.

He felt warmth envelop him as he painted. It was as if someone was guiding his hands so that they moved flawlessly over the canvas/

The painting took form before his eyes as the brush moved over it. He had never felt so sure, so confident of his powers before...

And maybe the braid was helping him do this...

* * *

Iris had not recovered consciousness yet. and Kenneth, insisting that she needed plenty of rest, wanted her to remain that way.

"It is a wonder that she survived." George told Barnabas.

"She must have been mad."

"You know, after she stabbed you, she could have easily ambushed me. Instead she ran away. And she did have a grievance against me. I _did_ shoot Violet."

"She probably saved your life by running away. Maybe seeing me down there, after she knifed me shook her back into sanity, even temporarily."

"It may well be. In any case, she did not stab anyone else."

"Well, let's be thankful for that. Now, if she lives. what will she do?

"Whatever she does, it may help us determine if she is truly haunted by Violet, or it is just a trick of a guilty mind."

* * *

Iris' eyes did not focus. She was aware of warmth, of being safe. And of a presence that would not leave her.

She was there, waiting, once Iris woke up, once she left the bed. She would be back even if she could not be seen.

... better to remain asleep, better not to leave the weapon that her body was where Violet could use it...

She sensed an anger. Because Violet knew that she had lost Iris, that Iris could not be used again.

Iris smiled slightly. She had won. She had stopped the killing before it started...

And then the presence was gone. Iris let out a sigh of relief, and let the deep dream claim her again.

Yet, before she lost consciousness, she thought of Peter... and the edge of fear came back to her

* * *

Peter shivered. "She's here!" he shouted in his sleep "She's here!"

He woke up. No, it was a dream. A bad dream. And now it had gone away...

Only it had not She _was_ there. And she wanted something from him.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"She's here! She's here!" Peter said again and again, holding himself. His mother was here, with him. There was something that she wanted him to do, and he had to do it...

There was no way to stop her.

Aunt Iris could not stop Mother, and neither could he. She would have her way.

He slid out of the bed, in the dark, and moved to the kitchen. He opened the drawer where the knives were kept. He found one that his mother liked. It was large enough and sharp enough.

The light went on.

"Peter!" Sandy said, with relief. "It was you. What are you doing here? You want a drink?" she looked at his hand and saw what he was holding. "Put that down. You can get hurt with it."

Peter just stood, staring at her.

"Peter?" she asked him, unsure of what was going on and how she should react to it.

His arm leaped in front of him, brandishing the knife. It was not his arm anymore. It was his mother's and he could not stop it.

She saw him close at her, and jumped out of the way, screaming.

He slashed at the air, once, twice, as she tried to put furniture between him and herself.

"Why" she said. "Why are you doing this?"

"You are helping her. You are helping Julia Hoffman and the others. You are taking my child away."

Xavier ran to them. He almost grabbed Peter, but the knife came too close.

They circled around Peter, keeping their distance. And Peter kept talking all the time.

"It is their fault. It is all their fault. They would help Iris, but they would not help me. Iris was always Mother's pet. She was everybody's pet. She deserved to die, not me! She stole my child. And why are you allowing Delia to go free? It was her fault what happened. It was not my fault, it was hers! Why let her go? I will make them pay, all of them!"

Xavier reached quickly and grabbed Peter's hand, forcing him to release the knife.

Peter collapsed, weeping "It was her. It was Mother... She did it... she made me do it."

Sandy went to the phone. "I am calling Dr. Hoffman. Peter needs more help that we can give him. I will not have him next to my children."

Xavier nodded agreement. It was out of their hands now.

* * *

"So George might be right about Violet possessing Iris, after all." Barnabas said.

"It is too early to say that." Julia replied.

"It fits, doesn't it? First, she uses Iris and when she can't do that anymore, because Iris is being kept drugged, and under police custody, she switches to Peter."

"It might well be that it is just Iris' and Peter's imagination working out their past traumas. Peter must have learned of what Iris did, and he worked himself up. He has gone through a lot of trauma that child.. And some of it was my fault."

"Why are so unwilling to discuss the possibility of possession?"

"I mistrust it. It makes it too easy. It allows me to escape responsibility for my failures."

"It is not about you, Julia. It is about them.."

Julia looked daggers at him. "It is your responsibility too that you are escaping."

Barnabas sighed. He knew that there would be moments like this Julia was having a flashback to the pain that he had inflicted on her... To be expected... after all the promise had not been that they would be free of pain, only that they would get better at handling it.

But why now?

"Still, I think it might be a good idea to take Iris off sedation. She cannot answer questions as she is."

"Well, I'd rather interrogate her under drugs. She will be less likely to lie."

Barnabas sighed. Like it or not, Julia was the attending physician. and he did not even have a degree. He had to defer to her judgment., and hope to change her mind.

* * *

"You saw Violet?" Julia asked Iris.

Let's hope that the answers she got would get Barnabas, along with George, out of their insistence that there was possession. They were wrong, and she wanted them to shut up.

"I knew that she was there. I knew what she wanted."

"Did she tell you what it was?"

"I just knew it."

"How did you know?"

"It was there. There was no way not to know."

"But you never saw her, never heard her say anything."

"She did not need to say it. She had her own way of letting me know."

"Where there times when she was there?"

"Yes."

"And were there times when she wasn't?"

"Yes."

"How could you tell the difference?"

"I could tell."

"Is she here, now?"

"No, she is not. She does not care for me anymore. I can't go off and kill people as she wants me to... But there are others."

Julia sighed. Iris was plainly delusional. If Barnabas wanted to lie to himself to escape responsibility that was his affair. She had to go with the facts.

* * *

Zeb saw Julia come out of the hospital as he waited in his car.

He was not sure what he wanted to say to her. He had already settled all that was there to be settled about Uncle Dave. First his death, then the details of his private life. All that anger had gone away. His period of slavery under Vassily Petofi's had helped put things in perspective for him.

And yet, while he waited for Julia, he felt a wave of anger rise in him. It was her fault, something seemed to tell him. And then there was the matter of Yolanda, who had made a fool of him...

And Yolanda would have never made a fool of him had it not been for Julia and Barnabas...

He should not be there. He should be home, with his wife, specially now that they were going to have a baby...

He shifted the gears as Julia came closer. This was madness. He did not have to be there...

"But you owe me, Zeb King." he heard the voice in his mind "You let Yolanda touch my child. You tried to help Iris steal it from me... it is your fault, too. But I will leave you alone if you kill Julia."

"No not that."

But the car no longer obeyed him. It pointed itself as a weapon towards Julia, ran to her... Zeb could not lift his foot from the accelerator, could not find the hand brake, could not...

Julia screamed and tired to run. The car hit her.

And only then Zeb found the brake.

* * *

"How's she?' Zeb asked, sick with fear.

"One broken leg." George told him. "But she'll live."

Zeb let out a sigh of relief.

"Care to tell me what happened? Did your car skid on a patch of ice? Or maybe your brakes need fixing... I don't really think that you tried to run her down."

"But I did." Zeb said, sickened. "I had no reason to come to town except to run her down. I HAD to."

"Had to?"

"Because of Yolanda. I had let her got close to Peter to hurt him, and I had to pay for it."

"By killing Julia?'

"Yes. She told me that. She hates me but not so much as she hates Julia. And Iris. She hates Barnabas and you, too."

'You know who it is that you are talking about?"

"Yes. Peter's mother, Violet. She was crazy and you killed her. But that was not the end of it."

No, it was not. It was not Iris' imagination nor Peter. Violet Upton wanted her revenge and would get it, one way or another.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Evans was pleasant enough. It was not his fault, really, that he was Maggie's cousin, and that Maggie had been more than a bit underhanded in the way she had gotten him his job.

"You want to talk to Miss Harding, don't you?" he asked George.

"Yes. It is important."

Evans looked uncomfortable "I am not sure that I can allow this."

"Who can?"

"Doctor Hoffman."

"But Doctor Hoffman can't, and someone must take over. I suppose that you are that someone."

"Yes. That is me." Evans did not seem to be appreciably happy about his newly increased responsibility. "Still, I don't think that Doctor Hoffman would appreciate my doing this."

"Doctor Hoffman did not appreciate being run over by a car. What I am trying to do might stop this kind of thing from happening again. And anyway, someone must be in charge here, while she is away. Sitting on your ass and fretting as to what Doctor Hoffman might want or not want does not qualify. Now will you stop hedging and let me see Miss Harding?"

Evans sighed. "All right. I will take you to her."

Delia looked a lot better than she had the last time he had seen her. But then, at the time she had been a wild-eyed maniac. After all the time that had elapsed, there was bound to be some improvement.

"Good morning, sheriff. So I look sane enough to you?"

He nodded "Yes, you do."

"So you don't have an excuse to keep me here any longer."

"I have bad news. Doctor Hoffman is in the hospital. Someone ran her down."

"Is she...?"

"She is alive. But I want to talk about how it concerns you."

"Me? You are not accusing me of that, I hope."

"Not you. Violet Upton."

"But she is dead... I heard that you had shot her."

'Yes. I killed her. Only she is a very restless ghost. She wants revenge and is using others to carry it out. She's already possessed Iris and Peter. She took over Zeb King so that he ran over Julia."

"Sheriff, you sound crazier than I ever did."

"I wish I was. But unhappily Violet is out there, and we don't know who she will go after next. One thing for sure, you are on her list. Either she possesses you and uses your body to try to kill me or Barnabas, or she possesses someone else, and uses him or her to kill you. Either way you need protection from her."

Delia blanched. "Damn it, what does she want with me? Look, it was wrong, what she did... all right, what we did. But I did not force her into it. She wanted it as much as I did. No, she wanted it even more. She's got no right to complain. When she escaped from here I bet that she did not stop to think about me for one moment."

"We have to stop her. And I need your cooperation for it. And you have no choice in this. If you want to keep your throat from being cut, you will have to help us."

* * *

"How could you?" Barnabas reproached David.

"I had to."

"You had to abandon your own child?'

"I am not precisely abandoning him. Carolyn can care for him better than I can."

"And of course, for you it is too much bother."

"All right." David said, exasperated with his thick skulled cousin "Let's say that it is true, that it is too much of a bother for me. Is it not better then, that Eliot not be raised by someone as despicable as I? I would set a very bad example for him. He'd grow up to be a complete failure, just like his old man."

"David!"

"How much good did it me being raised by my father? Eliot deserves better than that."

"It is not Eliot's fault that Hallie ran out on you.:"

"I am not blaming Eliot for it, even though my father set a fine example there. It was my fault that my mother ran away, that was what he felt, and what he made sure I knew. Damn it, Barnabas. I want better for Eliot than what my father gave me. It would have been better for me if my father had gone away, never to return. Much better than being rejected by him twenty four hours a day. Vicky was his child, too, and for all that he totally abandoned her, she turned out better than I did."

"It does not have to be that way."

"But that's the way it is working out. Take a look at Carolyn and tell me how she is not trying to repeat Aunt Liz' mistakes, chained by my mad father and by her haughty ways, the way that Aunt Liz was chained by that truck in the basement. Look at me, abandoned by my wife, with a child to vent my bitterness on. Just like my own father... We grow up to become our parents if we do not watch out. And Eliot is not growing up to become like me."

"I don't approve of it."

"Then don't. But I want better for Eliot than what I had."

* * *

"I think that you are wrong." Julia said.

"Damn it, Julia, it is as plain as the nose in your face." George said with irritation. "Violet is on the loose and we got to stop her. This is not the moment to rake old wounds and to feel resentful towards Barnabas for what he inflicted on you. We have to keep Violet from striking again. When it is done, you can return to hurting over the past, but not now."

"I am not..."

"You are. I recall the conversation we had not too long ago. Well, maybe you need to work it out. _But Not Now._ Look how it is. It is not Iris. It is not Peter. It is not Zeb. It has been Violet all the time."

"There can be other explanation."

"People in Collinsport are flipping out, one at a time?"

"You know that Zeb has a lot of anger inside him."

"I know of Zeb's anger. And I know how it got burned out when we needed to escape Vassily Petofi. And if he did not try to run you over months ago, when his anger was at a red pitch, why should he do it now?"

"I don't approve of your plan."

"Well, Julia, in that case, we will go ahead without you. It IS Violet, and if we don't stop her she will just take over someone else." he looked at Julia through narrowed eyes. "Maybe even your. In fact, the way you fight this makes me wonder."

"That's nonsense!"

"I have to part from the basis that it is Violet because if is true, then we are all in danger. We can't afford complacency, nor saying that Iris might get better, that Peter might get better, that maybe we should charge Zeb with reckless driving. That will not stop the danger."

"I will not have you using Delia the way you plan to."

"Evans released Delia. At this moment she is a free agent. She is free to cooperate with me."

"And how did you coerce her to cooperate?"

"I convinced her that if she did not cooperate she might well end up in the hospital or the morgue. Violet has no reason to spare Delia. And Delia is quite aware of it."

"Evans had no authority to..."

"Julia, he had. Delia was due to be released. When you became incapacitated, Evans did what he was expected to do, he took over and signed for you. Nothing unusual about that."

"He should not have. You deceived him. I bet that you didn't tell him what you had planned to do."

"Julia, Julia, Julia... Why do you have to be so stubborn? You were lucky that Zeb did not kill you. Why push your luck?"

"Because Violet has nothing to do with it. Because I don't want a small town cop diagnosing and treating my patients. You can't interfere with their treatment."

"I am not interfering with either Iris or Peter. Ask your staff if I have been around them at all. As for Delia, all I did was encourage Evans to go through with a decision that you had already made. And I did not approach her again until she was a free agent."

Julia became very pale. "All right. You have gone over my head. So what need do you have of my opinion now, much less my help?"

George sighed. "I do hope to change your mind, and join us."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"I still can't understand how David could do it." Barnabas said while holding David in his arms. "No matter what else he might have done in the past, I would have though that this was beneath him."

"I know." Carolyn agreed "But in a sense I am glad that he came to me. I _can_ take care of the boy. And if David is going to be the same kind of father that Roger was, well, maybe it is better that he stay away. I know, it sounds very cold-blooded, but still... You know that my father abandoned me, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Sometimes I think that I was lucky in that, being the kind of person that he was."

"A child needs his parents."

"A child needs responsible and dedicated adults who will see to its needs and give out lots of love. Whether or not those adults are the biological parents is irrelevant." she spoke with finality. "And I have to agree with David, as much as I dislike saying it. Maybe he did the right thing."

The set of her mouth told Barnabas that it was the wrong time to start an argument. He wanted to ask her how Adam was doing, but he suspected that it was a sore point. Roger was now and outpatient, taking medication to control his wild fancies, but he had noted that while Roger was better, Carolyn seemed more hostile, more combative..

And David's words came back to him.. Was Carolyn trying to repeat her mother's pattern?

He excused himself and left.

Vicky was in a much cheerier mood, and that made him feel better.

"You look quite well" she remarked,

"For someone who got carved up like a turkey?" he asked, smiling.

"Yes. I got news. Good news."

"What about?"

"They traced the survivors of the village that Burke burned. I will be contacting them soon. I am now setting up a trust fund for them." she took a deep breath. "and that will finally get Burke Devlin out of my system. I can finally bury him and walk away."

"That is good. And how are you doing otherwise? "

"Business is good. I may want to hire Buffy Torrance to help out, even if part time. She wants to better herself. She knows that thee is a difference in background and education between her and Frank, and wants to do something about it. She does not want Frank to think that he married beneath him."

He nodded at that. Yes, that would be good. "How about Phillip:? How does working for Carolyn is for him?"

"It does him good. I warned him not to get involved in their drama."

"What drama?"

"There is always drama there. I don't want any of it. I got enough of it to last me a lifetime."

'They are my family."

"I know. But they are not mine."

* * *

"We will need the protection of someone who loved us." George told Barnabas. "someone on whom we can trust. At least, that was what Angelique told me."

"Is she going to be on this?"

"No. She said she'd rather keep away for the sake of her child. And I agree with her. I'd rather not have my child caught in any metaphysical crossfire. It is _my_ child, you know."

Yes, he knew. There was no way to avoid George's ecstatic litanies on the subject. he wondered what it would be like when time came to raise the child. Whether the child would understand why "uncle Barnabas" had to stay in the coffin during the daytime... Maybe it would not be "uncle Barnabas" but "daddy Barnabas".

That was not the moment to worry about that. There would be plenty of time later. That is, if they succeeded in exorcizing Violet.

"Zeb and Jessica will come. They will probably ask Dave's protection and I can't begrudge them that. It is his way of making peace with what... what he knows. But that means I can't call on him."

"You can call on my mother. She will not refuse you."

"And you?"

"I will call on Old Munsungan. I do not know if it was love, but there was respect, and we were allies often enough."

"Thank you." George was visibly moved by this. Barnabas decided to move the conversation away from the subject, before it got mushy.

"What about then others?"

"Jessica will call on her grandfather. Xavier and Sandy can call on good friends and family. Derek will claim his long suffering mother.

Will Julia be there?"

"Yes, we are having the séance in her room at the hospital.. It took some doing... She will probably call on her father and mother.

"And Delia?"

"She is coming too. She is claiming the protection of a schoolteacher that helped her when she was a child."

* * *

They all gathered around the table, which was not easy in the hospital room. Tammy and Joe had come, too, as they had reason to fear Violet too. They had not bothered to call Jake, as they though he would be seen as a friend by Violet. Julia had given in. In the end, she had decided that her unresolved conflicts were not worth endangering her husband and child.

They now had to call on the protection that they claimed. Julia was the one to begin.

"Albretch and Gretchen Hoffman." she said. "I am your daughter. I live. And I need your help. For the love you had for me, protect me from what is to come."

She sat down and it was Xavier's turn.

"Robert, my old friend. We shared much, you and I. I would have protected you if I could. Now please protect me, for the sake of the friendship that we shared. in that which is to come."

Zeb rose next.

"Uncle Dave." she said. "I am the only child you could have. Though I have been ungrateful and petty, I still loved you. I do not doubt your love for me. For the sake of that love, as you sought to protect me when I was a child, please protect me from what is to come."

Jessica rose.

"Grandfather Fergus. I was the apple of you eye when I was a child. For the sake of the love you held for me, please protect me in that which is to come."

It was George's turn. He looked at Barnabas and rose.

"Naomi Collins, Mrs. Joshua Collins. Barnabas' mother. Though I knew you not personally, I know your son, and I know how great your love for your son is. For the sake of the love you have for him, for the sake of the love that I have for your son, and which he has for me, in the name of your son, please protect me in that which is to come."

There. It was done, And while there was no answer, no way to tell if he had been listened to, he was certain he had received that protection.

It was Sandy's turn.

"Herbert Junior." she said. "My first child, who died when you were still a babe, in my arms. You were small and helpless, but you knew your mother, and knew that she loved you. My child, if you see me, please protect your mother in that which is to come."

Tammy rose next.

"Lavinia, from whom my whole family sprang. Honored ancestress of our clan. Protect your kinswoman in that which is to come."

Then it was Joe.

"Sam Evans. Friend. Though it was not my fate to marry your daughter, I was your friend and you were mine. Protect me, for the sake of that friendship, in that which is to come."

Barnabas' turn had come.

"Old Munsungan, my adversary once, and then my ally. We fought more than one battle together. We faced dangers together before. And for this new danger that threatens us I need your help. For the sake of those other battles, protect me in that which is to come."

Delia got up, still unsure that she could do it.

"Miss Treat. You tried to teach me right from wrong, and did not always succeed. But you persevered. More than once I have strayed from your teachings and lived to regret it. I am again regretting my choices. I do need your help. For the sake of the care you once gave , please protect me in that which is to come."

Only Derek remained. He gulped once and rose.

"Mother, I was not the perfect son. I have done many things that distressed you, and I regret that distress. I chose wrongly in too many things. But in others I did choose right. For the sake of the love you have for me, for the sake of the sorrow I feel for my distressing you, please protect me in that which is to come."

He was the last one. They held hands, ready for Violet, ready to do battle with her, and vanquish her once and for all.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Their hands were linked and the lights dimmed. Barnabas felt himself become tense. She was there, he knew. He could not see her, could not hear her, but she was there. And he knew what she wanted. As much as she had been shouting it t the top of her lungs.

"Violet." he said. "Violet. Appear to us."

There was a heaviness on them. And an awareness of pain and rage. A blind fury that would destroy anything that lived, and still failed to ease its own pain.

"Violet" he insisted. "we know that you are here, we want to see you."

A dark fog of pain and anger settled on them, biting into their souls, marking them with despair. They were shaken, but did not let go of each other's hands. Barnabas clenched his teeth and girded himself. He would see this thing through, no matter how great the pain. He would trust on the protection the had claimed and go ahead.

The hand that squeezed his seemed to say the same. It heartened him. The other would hold as steady as he.

"Violet" this time it was George who spoke. "Show yourself to us. We know of your presence. We know of your actions. Do not hide yourself from our eyes."

There seemed to be a thickening on the air, a sudden gust of cold, and then the laughter began.

It was a cruel, defiant laughter. And with despair at the bottom. Violet was unable to save herself, to help herself in any way, but she could hurt others, and would keep on doing so.

"Violet, we know that it is you. You will not get any of us to do your killing anymore."

"What makes you so sure, faggot?" Violet's voice reached them, loud and clear.

"You will not destroy us."

"Oh, but I will. You will all be destroyed. You will pay for the evil that you have done to me."

"Violet" Delia said. "Why blame me? You wanted it as much as I did. More. It was you who came to me, who asked me to take you, to do the things you were scared to do. We did not do anything that you did not wish to do."

"You made me hurt my child! You tricked me!"

"You tricked yourself" Julia said.

"Save your jargon for yourself, doctor. I know what was done to me, and by whom. And you will all pay."

"What have I ever done to you?" Derek asked. "I never hurt you."

"You could have exposed Delia for what she was, thus saving me from her."

"There was enough talk about Delia then. You were warned against her." George said calmly. "You chose to disregard the warnings, and now you want to punish Iris for trying to warn you and then Derek for not doing so..."

"Leave Iris out of this! It was all her fault. She knew that I would not listen to her, that's why she warned me! She knew that I would turn to Delia if she said that I should not.!"

"Why do you hate me?" Tammy asked. "I never did you harm."

"You played false to Jake. I owed it to him to kill you."

"Jake was no friend of yours. He led you to your death."

"No, he was my friend. The only friend I had."

"He set you free only to satisfy himself. He never cared for what happened to you."

"He set me free!"

"He sent you to be killed by George."

"No! It was not him. It was you, all of you. And George wanted to kill me. I saw his face. I saw how he enjoyed it."

"You had made me angry. What did you expect? You had nearly killed a friend of mine, and had another under the knife. Was I supposed to turn a friendly smile to you?"

"You hated me, all the time."

"And when did you give us reason not to hate you? When did you try to make us like you?"

"You all hated me! You wanted to get rid of me!"

"You brought it all on yourself." Julia said, crisply. "We offered help, but you turned it down."

'Help! You call what you give help!"

"Yes, it was help."

"No. You never cared for me. No one ever cared for me."

"That's not true, and you know it."

"No, no one did."

"You made it difficult to care for you. You did things that are not easy to forgive."

"I will have my revenge, still. You will not be able to resist me. You'll kill each other."

"We will do no such thing. You are not strong enough against us when we are all together."

"I am strong and you fear me."

"Yes, we fear you. But you will not prevail. For, if we try, we will be stronger than you."

"No. Yu will not be stronger. I will be the stronger."

"Violet, why do you insist on beating your head against the wall?"

"Because I am right, and you are wrong. Because you stole my child from me. Because..."

"Don't blame us for your child." George said hoarsely. "I saw what you had done to him. I rescued him from you."

"You admit it!"

"You could not care for him. Someone had to.!

"You stole him from me!"

"Violet, Violet, Violet..." Barnabas said softly... He recognized with dismay when his own reasonings were like Violet's... He knew that he had been insane in 1967. Now he knew how much...

"Don't take that tone with me! As if I was an idiot, or a child, or one of the people you deal with at Wyncliffe"

"Why didn't you let us care for you? Why did you hurt us so that we had to hurt you in return?"

"You _were_ and idiot." Julia interjected sharply "you refused to learn from your mistakes. Even now."

"What is it there to learn?"

"Whose fault it really was. What choices you made, and what choices you could have made but didn't."

"You always know everything, doctor, don't you?"

"I don't know everything, but in this this I know more than you."

"And what do you know?"

"That this will not help you any. That if you were to destroy each one of us, you'd still be hurting as much as before."

"It is not true! It will give me peace. It will make me happy!"

"It will not happen that way. It will not help you."

"It will. Just watch me!"

"But if you desist, there can be help for you."

"Help? Where is it? Where can it be?'"

"There are those willing to help you."

"You?"

"No, not us."

"Who, then? Who can they be who are so willing to help? What are they to you or me?"

"You can know them if you allow them to come to you."

Violet was silent, and Barnabas felt the cold wind reach into him, into all of them. It was Violet's hatred, raw and sharp-toothed, which threatened to devour them all.

But it did not. Something kept it away.

Something. Or someone.

Whichever it was, it was the protection they had claimed and which now reached them.

"No!" Violet shouted "I don't want to know them! I want revenge! I don't want anything else!"

The cold wind abated, only to rise again.

But another wind was with them.

"There is love for you, Violet, if only you accept it." Barnabas said "take it."

"No!" Violet shouted "I will not. I will make you pay."

She laughed cold and hard. She vanished, but the laughter remained. And then the laugher was gone, too.

"Is she gone?" Sandy whispered.

"No" Julia said. "She wants us to think that she is gone. She wants us to break the circle and abandon our protection. Then she will come back, ready to tear apart each one of us."

"So we stay here?"

"Yes."

"For how long?" Barnabas asked. The circle could not remain unbroken past the dawn, not with him in it.

"I don't think that she will hold out for much longer, if she sees that it does not work."

"How can you be so sure?"

"She needs us. She has to have us, either our destruction or our forgiveness."

"And we sit till it happens?'' George asked.

"Yes."

The laughter began again.

"You see?" Julia muttered " she's back. She could not hold out for long."

Violet stood in front of them. "Oh, yes. Tell it to them, doctor. Tell it all. It is a pretty tale."

They did not answer.

"I will get you yet! One way or the other. I deserve it. You OWE it to me. I will destroy you."

They kept silent again. They had seen a glow form behind Violet, a glow that grew bit by but, and which was as warm as Violet was cold.

A gust of cold wind flew over them and the glow, as if trying to blot it.. But the glow withstood it. And a gentle, warm, breeze began to flow from it.

"Go away! Damn you! Go away!" Violet shouted at the glow. "I want nothing to do with you!"

The glow did not go away.

"You brought this here!" Violet turned to them "You send it away! Send it away, I tell you!"

"You know what it is, Violet?" Julia asked gently.

"I don't want to know it! Send it away!"

"You know, it Violet. You know that you can't escape it. And you also know that you should not try to escape it."

"I hate it! I hate all of you!"

"There is healing for you in it."

"I don't want any! And I will never leave you alone! Never! I will have my revenge, still."

But she was trembling. It was the end of the line for her.

Suddenly, Barnabas ached for her. There had been a time when he could have helped her, when he could have made a difference. But he had not, with what had seemed sensible excuses. And yet, he himself had once known a hatred like hers, a pain like hers... why had he looked away?

But it was going to end. Even if Violet fought it, even if she unleashed more of the cold wind of her hatred, even if she shouted her desperation at them.

The glow that came to her would not stop. If would reclaim her, no matter how she fought it, no matter how unwilling she was to forgive and accept forgiveness.

It would happen.

They only had to sit there and wait for it.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"You! I know what you are! You are not what you pretend to be! You have no call to be so innocent looking. I know your crimes! I know your guilt! How dare _you_ forgive me!"

They did not answer it. It was a cry of despair that they could not satisfy. Only Violet had the power to make it go away.

She laughed, hollowly. She would be defeated. She could not prevail, and she knew it. They all knew it. But it would not happen painlessly nor easily. She would fight every inch of the way.

The glow grew, illuminating the room. Some shapes could be divined in it. It began to touch them, one by one, softly, subtly, making vanish the cold that still lingered in them.

But it could not touch Violet. She stood in the middle, enveloped inn her cocoon of darkness.

"You will die! You will pay for this!"

They did not fear he anymore. They pitied her.

"Just you wait! just you wait!" she sobbed "I will get my way, still."

"Let go of your hatred, Violet."

"I never will!"

"You must."

"Never!"

Yet Violet's voice trembled, as her figure did. It was over, she had lost. She had to accept it.

"Let us help you, Violet." Barnabas said. And then he knew what to do. He got up, breaking the circle, and extended his hand. The glow did not go away, but it involved him in a strong radiance, as strong as the darkness around Violet was.

"Take my hand, Violet."

He walked towards her, while the others watched in silence. They re-closed the circle without him and waited.

"Accept what we can offer you."

"No, don't touch me, please." Violet begged. Then added, defiantly "I already know what you can do. I learned it in 1967."

"It won't work, Violet. Yu can't use guilt against me."

"Don't destroy me, please!"

"It is not destruction that we offer you."

"Don't! Don't!"

"Your hatred is not you. Let go of it. Accept this."

Violet sobbed violently. "I never got what I wanted. I never..."

"This you must have. And you do want it."

Violet sobbed again.

"Accept it; For your own sake."

"No! No! I won't! I won't!"

She wept and hollered as Barnabas came to her and touched the darkness that enveloped her.

The glow began to eat away the darkness as Barnabas touched her arm. She whimpered, but could not stop it."

"I am afraid." she said.

"Don't be."

The glow devoured her darkness until there was none of it left. Till she herself was enveloped in it, like everybody else. She wept in Barnabas' arms.

"It is over, Violet. It is over at last."

Then she was gone. Only the glow remained.

"It is done, then." George said.

"Yes, it is." Barnabas answered, softly.

"What will happen to her?"

"I don't know. But she will be safe, and she will heal."

They rose from the table, slowly, still feeling the effects of the battle in which they had fought. Automatically, Jessica crossed herself, then looked guiltily at Barnabas.

And saw Barnabas crossing himself.

* * *

David looked at Collinwood once more as he drove off. He had done the right thing, he told himself. Eliot was better off in the care of Carolyn.

Yet, why did he feel so rotten about it? It was the sensible thing to do. He would not repeat the mistakes of his father...

He would come back one day. And then maybe it would be different. Yes, he would come back, when his wound was healed and he could look at his son and not see Hallie in him...

He did not know when, but he would return. He always, in the end, came back to Collinwood.

* * *

"So it is over?'' Roxanne asked Derek.

"Yes. We had to do some exorcism. It worked, and now we are free."

"Who was it that had to be exorcized?"

:"Violet Upton. Iris White's sister."

"Yes. I did hear about her. She was killed last year, wasn't she?"

"Yes. But she did not rest. And she was a very unhappy woman who wanted everybody else to suffer for her unhappiness."

"But it is over, now."

"Yes. And I don't have to worry anymore about the Mob gunning in for me. Now I am going to move permanently to Egg City."

"I will be coming with you."

"We'll be glad to have you."

"By the way, is it true what I heard, that Barnabas crossed himself at the end of the séance?"

"Yes, it is. I saw it myself."

"So he got rid of that psychological block at last. How does he explain it to himself?"

"He doesn't. He is just wondering about it."

"Well, whatever... We are out of it. He can figure out the meaning of it on his own."


End file.
